Sunday
28 June 2026 (Day 8)
Our
last day. We had our usual light breakfast, which was a mistake as we had to
depart boat at 12:30 and so didn’t get lunch.
The
only food on the boat was the croissants and orange juice left over from early
riser’s breakfast.
A
swift drive in a people mover got us to the airport at 13:00. The taxi driver
showed the other couple where checkin for their flight to Dublin was, then took
our bags, led us to the upper-level and found us seats where our London checkin
would be. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 16:30 and checkin opened at
14:00. As we were flying business class, we could have used the business class
l lounge and got a meal, but the lounge was before the dreaded EES machines and
we’d read many reports of EES delays causing passengers to miss their flight
home, so we headed for the EES queues.
An
assistant directed us to the EES machine but after a minute of thinking, the
machine turned red and we were directed to the manual check. As was everyone, because
the blighted system isn’t linked to the central database it can’t compare our
entry and exit dates. So we joined a long queue, which, though it was moving,
grew longer as more people joined it than were processed. After 35 minutes we
showed our passports to a bored officer and then we were waved through. The
queue by then was twice the length it was when we joined it.
The
plane was delayed by 35 minutes, then take off was delayed, but finally we were
on our way home and food, and Champagne, was served on the plane.
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